The 1981 "Almost Blue" album embraced songs written by country artists such as Charlie Rich and Merle Haggard.
As his natural curiosity led him to explore outside the new-wave margins, his fan base began to waver. Costello loved songs - even early tracks such as "Watching the Detectives" and "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes" brimmed with sharp images and turns of phrase. He got lumped in with punk and new wave as a token "angry young man," but the label didn't stick. He struggled to find his voice and when he finally did, as he famously told one interviewer, it was to express emotions defined by "guilt and revenge." But an examination of his discography reveals that he's one of the most tasteful and consistent singer/songwriters in the annals of pop music.Costello's dad, Ross, was a crooner and jazz trumpeter who expanded his repertoire by listening to an endless stream of records, and young Declan absorbed everything from be-bop and Tin Pan Alley standards to the pop, R&B and rock 'n' roll songs that his father usually dismissed. In some ways, Lowe is the prototypical rock underdog-the second fiddle to Elvis Costello, a nerdy curator of highbrow power-pop. He's currently on tour for the second holiday season in a row in support of his Christmas album Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family, a record that makes Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart seem like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra by comparison. 2011's The Old Magic was a "mature" album in the purest sense of the term, one that grappled with its author's ripening age without being corny or esoteric. Thirteen solo records later, Lowe's still got it. From the topical, disco-tinted "Music for Money," to the funky "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" (his biggest UK hit), to the AM-radio pop reverence of "Tonight," Lowe established himself early on as a master of the pastiche, paving the way for future genre-blenders like They Might Be Giants and Beck.
The cover of Jesus of Cool (which was released in the US as Pure Pop for Now People) depicts Lowe in six distinct outfits, a reflection of the album's stylistic elasticity.
0 kommentar(er)
